Theodore Levin

Theodore Levin was an American author from Baltimore who notably served as the biographer of several Wild West gunslingers during the late 19th century.

Biography
Theodore Levin was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and he was fascinated by tales of the Wild West. This led him to travel to the American West in 1899 to write biographies of the great gunslingers, especially Jim Boy Calloway. He met Calloway in Valentine, Nebraska, but Calloway was often too drunk to cooperate, so Levin hired outlaw Arthur Morgan (who went incognito) to find, interview, and photograph gunslingers Emmet Granger, Flaco Hernandez, Billy Midnight, and Black Belle. Ultimately, Morgan had to kill the first three and photograph their bodies, while Black Bell was the only one not to be killed in a duel. Levin wanted to credit Calloway with the kills, but Calloway instead refused and asked for Morgan to deliver his rival Slim Grant to him. When Grant was uninterested in a duel, Calloway shot him in the back, but he realized that this made him a coward, so he challenged Morgan to a duel with the hope of redeeming himself. Ultimately, Morgan killed Calloway as well. Levin felt relieved to be free of Calloway, and he deified him by crediting the other gunslingers' deaths to Calloway, and writing that a mortally wounded Calloway had shot Grant in the back. His book sold several copies, and he sent Morgan $350 for helping him.